Dog Ways

17/11/2025

Sunday mantrailing teams Bella and Homer took a try at some 1k blind trails yesterday... After a 2 week break, Bella aced her trail and was almost paw-perfect every step of the way. Homer missed a turn and ended up a little off piste, but still enjoyed himself even though he had to work extra hard to find his trail layer.

Great job in a tricky environment with a mix of terrain changes and visual distractions 🤩

16/11/2025

Saturday Scent Detection class saw Burt working indoor finds in two locations - cabin and stables. Each indoor area had its own unique challenges, and little Burt worked his socks off to find his hides. Fantastic to see his drive and focus, and how he learned from each exercise, which then influenced how he searched the next time.

Here are a million pictures of Burt living the good life 😎 (and me testing my new phone camera 🤣)

16/11/2025

Yesterday's breezy morning saw teams Simba and Indie complete their UK Sniffer Dogs Silver Series 1 tracking workshop 🥳

Huge congratulations to both dog, who worked challenging terrain with the added distraction of 🐑 and 🐑 💩. Both teams nailed their article indications and did a fantastic job at working through distractions and blustery weather.

Very well done! 🤩

13/11/2025

Our phones are being upgraded over the next 48 hours 🥳

This does unfortunately mean we might be hard to contact by telephone or SMS message.

If you need to reach us before Monday, please drop us an email at:

[email protected]

Fingers crossed, everything should be back up and running soon!

13/11/2025

Today was a lovely day for some scentwork training, and the dogs enjoyed themselves immensely!

First up, Burt worked on his tracking skills, including his first surface transitions and Tracking through a wood. Then onto some scent detection, hunting for catnip. A super challenging environment for him, but he worked his socks off!

Next up was Blaze, who started with some internal and external gun oil searches before we imprinted catnip and let him spend a good forty five minutes hunting for scented items outdoors. He picked it up super quickly, aided by the fact that he already had an excellent retrieve to hand taught.

Then mantrailing dog Winnie came along to start Scent Detection, where we looked at shaping an indication and starting to imprint the scent of Kong. She made great strides during the session and we saw some fantastic understanding taking place!

Finally, the dog ways crew made use of the huge open area to work on their tracking. Poppy and Djinn did some basics tracks, while Willow aced the more technical elements of her exercises. The dampness of the ground made it super easy to spot when the dogs were being accurate or deviating from where the scent had been laid.

Overall a fantastic day filled with happy dogs and humans. We'll be back to the camp in December for our Christmas Mantrailing special - cant wait!🌲😁

09/11/2025

🌟 Are you ready to take your scentwork to the next level? 🌟

We've got 2 spots left for 1.5hr bespoke scentwork sessions next Thursday 13th November at Bowley Scout Camp 🏕

Attendees can select to work on tracking skills, scent detection skills, or a mixture of both.

The venue offers a wide range of environments to practice in, including woodland, field and both internal/external building searches.

The spots available are:

1.15pm - 2.45pm: https://bookwhen.com/dogwayslancashire/e/ev-stmzr-20251113131500

2.50pm - 4.20pm: https://bookwhen.com/dogwayslancashire/e/ev-sti6m-20251113145000

We don't often have the opportunity to practice scent activities here, so this may be your only opportunity in 2025/2026 to enjoy a tailored scentwork session in a private venue.

Take the first steps on your Dog Ways journey... About Dog Ways

09/11/2025

Yesterday's Scent Detection teams did amazing work carrying out gun oil searches in the stables.

We worked on quality of indications and salience in searching, as well as giving the dogs opportunity to work through a TON of visual and scent distractions. Some finds were high, some were low, some buried and some inaccessible. The dogs' tails never stopped wagging, and the handlers really stepped up to the challenges they were set at the start of the session. We don't always delve into theory on every class, but when we do, it's well worth it! 💜

Well done to teams Burt, Boudie, Blaze, Betty and Sassie for all your fantastic work. Handlers, keep an eye on your WhatsApp/Messenger for videos later today.

08/11/2025

Today was the first day of our UK Sniffer Dogs Silver Tracking Series 1 workshop!

Teams Simba, Betty and Indie flexed their tracking muscles as we tackled new article indications and precision and accuracy on turns.

Lots of great stuff done, and we're really starting to see the different ways the dogs have of using their noses on the track - no two are the same!

Looking forward to part 2 of the workshop next week 😀

01/11/2025

Scentwork Saturdays are always the highlight of the week due to the fab nature of the activity and the enthusiasm of the dogs and their humans who routinely show up to do great things in all weathers... and today was even more fun because it's time for super 🎃 HOWLOWEEN themed classes! 👻 😀

During the afternoon's scent detection class, teams Tully, Boudie, Grace, Burt, Sassie and Caleb had the opportunity to work on three different odours during a variety of novel exercises.

First up, coffee, cake and a spooky-themed quiz! We issued a challenge to see whether the dogs would best the humans across twelve questions... and the dogs totally aced it 😉

Next we had a pumpkin patch search, giving the dogs the opportunity to pick out the correct pumpkins. Hiding scent in something edible (and sometimes delicious!) is a fun way to increase the difficulty of the find, and other than a misplaced retrieve or two, the dogs tackled the exercise very well and with much enthusiasm! 😁

Finally we ended with a capture the flag game, asking the dogs to retrieve an item/texture that they wouldn't normally be asked to work with. We weren't sure how well the plastic flags would hold the catnip scent, but every single dog within the space of a minute had identified the correct flag and showed zero interest in any of the others, once again proving just how incredible their noses are 💜

Once again, the dogs went home with some pumpkin-filled treats and some mini pumpkins to chomp on/play with, and we stuffed the humans full of cake and sweets. Thank you to Burt and parents for sharing your birthday cakes with us, and happy one year birthday for tomorrow 🐕🙂

Lots of fun and laughs shared, and as always it was a delight to see the dogs enjoying themselves doing scentwork!

01/11/2025

Scentwork Saturdays are always the highlight of the week due to the fab nature of the activity and the enthusiasm of the dogs and their humans who routinely show up to do great things in all weathers... and today was even more fun because it's time for super 🎃 HOWLOWEEN themed classes! 👻 😀

First up was the morning's Tracking class, where teams Simba, Betty and Indie hunted down a werewolf to recover a stolen Halloween stash. The handlers did not even bat an eye at being asked to doff their shoes and pull on some monster feet slippers and go wading out to one of the tracking fields in ankle-deep mud. Brave souls always up for a laugh! 😬

After they found the stash, the track continued with a little work on indications and non-linear tracking as they hunted for the werewolf throughout the lunar cycle 🌙

The dogs were amazing despite the sporadic weather, with Simba and Betty in particular being super accurate even working against a wind 🌬 that was quite strong at times.

The dogs went home with some pumpkin-filled treats, and the humans enjoyed plenty of cake, sweets and hot drinks. An excellent morning!

29/10/2025

Tuesday trailing teams Pixie, Bella, Homer, Caleb and Winnie had some dodgy weather to contend with last night, but they all aced their road crossings and walking finds during the evening's session. It was the first time attempting walking finds for both Pixie and Winnie, and they had no problem understanding the concept of a moving trail layer 🤩

26/10/2025

Yesterday's tracking class saw teams Lando, Burt and Louie working in a new field with some interesting terrain to track over. The dogs did an amazing job, and we came up with some individual progression goals for each team.

To top it off, Louie achieved his UK Sniffer Dogs Bronze Series 2, and completed his first non-food tracks. Amazing stuff! 🤩